1UP's Favorite Games of 2012: Resident Evil Revelations

A portable entry in Capcom's lauded survival horror series managed a stunning upset of its more capable console counterparts.

Video
games can be many things to many people, so the idea of proclaiming a
single one as the best of 2012 strikes us as a little limiting. This
year, instead of screaming at each other for hours in a sweaty,
smoke-filled room until we emerge with a handful of winners, your
friends at 1UP have decided to forsake categorization and write about the
experiences that brought us the most enjoyment this year
-- and that's the point of playing video games, isn't it?

Like any year in video game
history, 2012 had its share of interesting surprises, but the one
involving Capcom's fan-favorite Resident Evil series may have shocked
me the most. If I could travel back and place a bet on which of 2012's
three RE-related projects would deliver a satisfying survival horror
experience -- one that felt in line with the original game -- I
would've placed the safe bet on Resident
Evil 6. Judging from some early
trailers and Captivate impressions, how could I not? And, somehow, it
turns out I would have chosen wrong. Resident
Evil Revelations, a portable
experience for Nintendo's 3DS, pulled off an unfathomable upset over
its console counterparts. The developers kept a laser-focus on pacing
and maintained
a consistently creepy tone to match its high production visuals. This
conservative approach eventually grew into spectacle-level
entertainment over time, but Revelations also revived the low-light
suspense missing from RE5.

I still can't believe this
portable experience delivered on so much. The dank corridors of the
Queen Zenobia cruise liner provided one of the eeriest settings I've
ever seen on a handheld. It proved Capcom made a genuine effort to make
Revelations look and sound like a high production RE game, but that
effort came with a few shortcomings: Mainly, some sloppy transitions
and a gelatinous new enemy class which awkwardly skated the whole
bio-terror vibe. Still, neither issue subtracted too much from the
whole. Surprisingly, even the slightly lowered camera perspective
managed to stay unobtrusive and never entered the frustrating levels I
had to endure in RE6.

Revelations took its dialogue
queues from the corniest Internet B-movie schlock, but the whole
experience still maintained just the right amount of trademark RE
atmosphere and suspense to make it feel authentic -- a difficult task
when you consider how Capcom shackled players to another cast of brain
dead A.I. partners. Despite having the technology to look so impressive
on a portable gaming device, the designers wisely avoided the
bigger-means-better approach taken by its console siblings, and the
results showed that, despite a few flaws, RE could evoke its original
form. I'm still stunned by how it all turned out. Who the hell
thought Resident Evil Revelations would signal a return to form for the
series? Well, somehow it happened, and the final product definitely
deserves your attention before the games of 2013 start to roll in.

Why Capcom, why?

They had completely nailed the essence of Resident Evil with this game (yes, I even enjoyed the few action segments), and they could have done the same with RE6, but they had to go ahead and make into another generic shooter. Let's just hope they learn the lesson, and make the next game more like Revelations.

One of my top 5 games of 2012

Resident Evil: Revelations was a fantastic surprise most welcome, It was the game that not only got my Girlfriend into Resident Evil but the 2 of us spent at least 5 months completing every single mission on RAID mode to get S rankings.

When 6 came out later in the year we played the game for about a week finishing each of the campaigns, then got bored of it and returned it.

I seriously hope Capcom puts more focus into the Revelations storyline and franchise, it was the perfect mix of classic survival horror from the original 3 games mixed the controls and OTS combat from 4 and 5.

Out of my top 5 games of 2012 it comes in at number 2, with Mass Effect 3 taking top spot